Earning My Southwest Companion Pass

In my most credit card churn, see here, I got both the Southwest Personal and Business credit cards. Both cards earn 50,000 miles after spending $2,000 in three months. The reason I got both cards is to get the Southwest's Companion Pass. You can learn all about the Companion Pass on Southwest's website here. In short, the companion pass allows your chosen person to fly with you free on any purchase or free Southwest flight.

One can earn the Southwest Companion Pass by earning 110,000 miles in one calender year. The key term here is "earn." One does not need to earn the miles by flying alone.

Therefore getting the two Southwest Cards puts be almost 95% the way to a companion pass:

50,000 Point Sign-Up Bonus for Personal Card
2,000 Earned by Spending $2,000 on the Personal Card
50,000 Point Sigh-Up Bonus for Business Card
2,000 Earned by Spending $2,000 on the Business Card

So far, I have earned 104,000 Southwest Miles leaving me 6,000 miles short of the Companion Pass. I could spend $6,000 more on either or both cards and be finished, but that will divert my spending ability from other cards that I value more. Therefore, I need to find other ways of earning 6,000 Rapid Reward Miles and quickly.

Here is my plan (so far):

1,000 Filing taxes through TurboTax (Southwest Merchant Portal here)
2,000 eRewards Transfer ($100 eRewards = $2,000 Points)

I have no plan for the last 3,000 Rapid Rewards. Here are some of my ideas:

1) Transfer 5,000 Choice Privilege Points = 1,800 Rapid Reward Points
2) Transfer 5,000 Hyatt Points = 2,400 Rapid Reward Points
3) Sign Up for Southwest Dining Rewards and spend $25 = 300 Rapid Reward Points
4) Stay at a Wyndham Hotel =1,200 Rapid Reward Points

As you can see,there aren't really any cheap slam dunk ideas to get that last 3,000 points. These 3,000 points are very violable. The sooner I earn them the sooner I earn the Companion Pass.

After looking at my options, I might need to just spend the extra $3,000 on the credit cards. Not what I want to do, but what I may need to do.

Am I missing some great way of earning 3,000 Rapid Reward Points asap and cheaply?




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